Why are so many people down on SLI?

[Chosonman]

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2496&p=6

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2451&p=13

1 x 7800GTX > 2 x 6800U

moonboy403 why are you cherry picking your results? Based on the benches you posted a single 7800GTX beat (albiet not by much) the 2 x 6800GTs. The GT only narrowly beat the 7800GTX's at lower rez on FEAR.

 

[moonboy403]

in most situation is what we meant by gtx < sli ultra
even in cases where gtx > sli, they were fairly close

you also have to consider the performance the person had when he owned the ultra sli
that person's getting gtx performance when the gtx hasn't even came out!

 

[SPARTAN VI]

Originally posted by: Chosonman
I've never liked SLI from the beginning.
The only people who need it are the people with so much money in their pockets they just don't know what to do except blow it on 2 high end graphics cards at roughly $400 a piece (that's $800 total for those of you counting)

The only people that need SLI are rich bastages? What about our brothers with huge widescreen LCDs? You know, when gaming on a widescreen, such as Dell 2005fpw or 2405fpw, games will ONLY look good at the native resolution. Newer games will require more power, and to keep playing at our native resolution we MUST upgrade. Otherwise I'd be playing at 1680x1050 with little to no "eye candy."

What will that buy you?
Bleeding edge performance.. but..
Only if you have a high end CPU to avoid bottle necking, a high resolution monitor that you can run at 1600x1200 or greater resolution to take advantage of the power of SLI, and the games that will run them. Considering most games run fine without SLI, I can only count a handfull of games that really benefit from the technology such as HL2, CS:S, FEAR, DOOM... and they're all FPS's (first person shooters)

Pfft. You're not going to see a CPU bottleneck anytime soon. Unless you're running HL2 at 640x480, low settings, 0xAA 0xAF

And what happens when a newer and better card comes out, such as the 7800GTX that replaced the 6800? You have the issue of upgrading, which means basically throwing away or selling on ebay your old graphics cards and buying 2 new ones because SLI cards have to be identical you can't mix and match.

Well you forget, if only filthy rich bastages buy SLi setups.. then why would this be a problem? I know I'll sell off my two 7800GT's when the 7900's or 8000's hit the street. I'll probably nab some $400 for both by then, which is a good start toward another SLi setup.

In most cases you would have been better off buying 1 6800GT and playing at high resolution then wait a year and upgrading to a 7800GT or 7800GTX.

You sure about that? 2x6800GT's in SLI can out perform a 7800GT. Some 6800 SLI'ers have completely skipped the 7800's because their SLI setup is working perfectly fine.


The fact of the matter is, going with an SLI configuration may seem like an expensive and odd choice, but it yields the greatest amount of performance. This is anandtech right?

We are enthusiasts, right?

 

[moonboy403]

totally agree with you spartan

i'm just a college student working in a part time job
i have sli...does that mean that i'm rich?
it just mean that i save up

 

[Chosonman]

Originally posted by: SPARTAN VI

Originally posted by: Chosonman
I've never liked SLI from the beginning.
The only people who need it are the people with so much money in their pockets they just don't know what to do except blow it on 2 high end graphics cards at roughly $400 a piece (that's $800 total for those of you counting)

The only people that need SLI are rich bastages? What about our brothers with huge widescreen LCDs? You know, when gaming on a widescreen, such as Dell 2005fpw or 2405fpw, games will ONLY look good at the native resolution. Newer games will require more power, and to keep playing at our native resolution we MUST upgrade. Otherwise I'd be playing at 1680x1050 with little to no "eye candy."

What will that buy you?
Bleeding edge performance.. but..
Only if you have a high end CPU to avoid bottle necking, a high resolution monitor that you can run at 1600x1200 or greater resolution to take advantage of the power of SLI, and the games that will run them. Considering most games run fine without SLI, I can only count a handfull of games that really benefit from the technology such as HL2, CS:S, FEAR, DOOM... and they're all FPS's (first person shooters)

Pfft. You're not going to see a CPU bottleneck anytime soon. Unless you're running HL2 at 640x480, low settings, 0xAA 0xAF

And what happens when a newer and better card comes out, such as the 7800GTX that replaced the 6800? You have the issue of upgrading, which means basically throwing away or selling on ebay your old graphics cards and buying 2 new ones because SLI cards have to be identical you can't mix and match.

Well you forget, if only filthy rich bastages buy SLi setups.. then why would this be a problem? I know I'll sell off my two 7800GT's when the 7900's or 8000's hit the street. I'll probably nab some $400 for both by then, which is a good start toward another SLi setup.

In most cases you would have been better off buying 1 6800GT and playing at high resolution then wait a year and upgrading to a 7800GT or 7800GTX.

You sure about that? 2x6800GT's in SLI can out perform a 7800GT. Some 6800 SLI'ers have completely skipped the 7800's because their SLI setup is working perfectly fine.


The fact of the matter is, going with an SLI configuration may seem expensive and odd, but it yields the greatest amont of performance. This is anandtech right?

We are enthusiasts, right?

I've never used the word bastages in my life so quit trying to put words in my mouth.

 

[moonboy403]

i was skeptical of whether i should upgrade to sli or not (i had a gtx before)

but then once i upgraded to sli, it's the greatest feeling in the world
the performance that i'm getting is so satisfying

it's so much better than 1 gtx

you wouldn't really love sli until you own one

 

[MustangSVT]

if money is no object for you.. then sure.. go ahead..

 

[Chosonman]

Originally posted by: moonboy403
totally agree with you spartan

i'm just a college student working in a part time job
i have sli...does that mean that i'm rich?
it just mean that i save up

I said you either have the money or you have the money to burn.
If mom and dad can pay for your school and all you have to work for is enough money for toys that's great for you. I wish I had that life again.

All I'm saying is it's good for those who can afford it but not a practical choice for those who have other things to do with their money.

 

[SPARTAN VI]

Originally posted by: Chosonman

I've never used the word bastages in my life so quit trying to put words in my mouth.

Don't be a girl. I'm not trying to put words in your mouth.

I summed up your unnecessarily long,

"The only people who need it are the people with so much money in their pockets they just don't know what to do except blow it on 2 high end graphics cards at roughly $400 a piece (that's $800 total for those of you counting)"

into two words: Rich bastage.

 

[moonboy403]

that's why i bought my cpu for like 100 and modding my board to sli
saving some money toward video card budget right?

 

[Chosonman]

That's not how you sum up someone's words.

I think a better summary is, it's good for those who can afford it but not a practical choice for those who have other things to do with their money.

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

ok, after i seen the benches i may agree, ultra-highend boards + 1600x1200 and above + max AA/AF = SLI pwns Single cards. Who lends me some money now?

 

[moonboy403]

try swiping your credit card?

 

[SPARTAN VI]

Originally posted by: ChosonmanI said you either have the money or you have the money to burn.
If mom and dad can pay for your school and all you have to work for is enough money for toys that's great for you. I wish I had that life again.

Or you just have trouble saving money..

I work part-time, $12.28/hour for 5.5hours. After CA FIT, I take home $599 every two weeks. My first paycheck every month goes to my 2005 Mustang that I bought myself, and that's $462.00 a month. The rest I pocket. The next paycheck pays for insurance, approximately $266.00 a month (about $3200 a year, as I'm 19 and driving a sports coupe). The rest I pocket. The company I work for covers about 50%-90% of my tuition, assuming I make the grades (a C average gives me nothing).

Now my SLI setup was a complete fluke. Landed a kickass deal, 4x7800GT's for the price of one. But I still had bought a X800XL for myself, X800Pro for my dad, two 6600GTs for my sister and my girlfriend, magnaflow catback dual exhaust for my 'stang, and not to mention the rest of my PC... that 2005fpw wasn't cheap. Did I mention I have a Xbox360, too?

 

[SPARTAN VI]

Originally posted by: Chosonman
That's not how you sum up someone's words.

Hehe. I didn't mean to offend, a joke if anything, directed at rich bastages.

 

[Chosonman]

Originally posted by: SPARTAN VI

Originally posted by: ChosonmanI said you either have the money or you have the money to burn.
If mom and dad can pay for your school and all you have to work for is enough money for toys that's great for you. I wish I had that life again.

Or you just have trouble saving money..

I work part-time, $12.28/hour for 5.5hours. After CA FIT, I take home $599 every two weeks. My first paycheck every month goes to my 2005 Mustang that I bought myself, and that's $462.00 a month. The rest I pocket. The next paycheck pays for insurance, approximately $266.00 a month (about $3200 a year, as I'm 19 and driving a sports coupe). The rest I pocket. The company I work for covers about 50%-90% of my tuition, assuming I make the grades (a C average gives me nothing).

Now my SLI setup was a complete fluke. Landed a kickass deal, 4x7800GT's for the price of one. But I still had bought a X800XL for myself, X800Pro for my dad, two 6600GTs for my sister and my girlfriend, magnaflow catback dual exhaust for my 'stang, and not to mention the rest of my PC... that 2005fpw wasn't cheap. Did I mention I have a Xbox360, too?

Sounds like you got a pretty sweet deal. With the compay helping you with your tuition.

But some of us here (no we're not all 19 and pretty) are old have a house and motage to pay on top of car payments, insurance, and savings in case of emergency ect... Plus the $4500 sectional sofa I want to buy for our house. So I have to think practically all the time. If not my wife usually reminds me.

 

[Munky]

If you look at the benches here http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2005q4/geforce-7800gtx-512/index.x?pg=1 and compare the scores for a single gtx or xt to the dual 6800gs, you can see that in most cases the older sli setup performs similarly to a single new high end card. In some games like doom3 it's faster, and in others like SS2 it's slower than the XT, but close to the gtx. So those who bought dual 6800gt's last year can skip this generation of cards, although they'd be missing a few newer features. But if they do, that means the cards will be 2 generations old when they try to sell em, and selling 2 6800gt's 8-10 months from now will not even pay for 1 r600 or g80. So while the performance is still decent, the longer you hold on to a card the more money you lose on it, and it only gets worse with 2 old cards. So, unless you have to run all the games at 1600x1200 res it would have been better to get a single 6800gt at first, and sell it later to upgrade to a gtx. Then sell the gtx when a next gen card comes out.

 

[SPARTAN VI]

Originally posted by: Chosonman

Originally posted by: SPARTAN VI

Originally posted by: ChosonmanI said you either have the money or you have the money to burn.
If mom and dad can pay for your school and all you have to work for is enough money for toys that's great for you. I wish I had that life again.

Or you just have trouble saving money..

I work part-time, $12.28/hour for 5.5hours. After CA FIT, I take home $599 every two weeks. My first paycheck every month goes to my 2005 Mustang that I bought myself, and that's $462.00 a month. The rest I pocket. The next paycheck pays for insurance, approximately $266.00 a month (about $3200 a year, as I'm 19 and driving a sports coupe). The rest I pocket. The company I work for covers about 50%-90% of my tuition, assuming I make the grades (a C average gives me nothing).

Now my SLI setup was a complete fluke. Landed a kickass deal, 4x7800GT's for the price of one. But I still had bought a X800XL for myself, X800Pro for my dad, two 6600GTs for my sister and my girlfriend, magnaflow catback dual exhaust for my 'stang, and not to mention the rest of my PC... that 2005fpw wasn't cheap. Did I mention I have a Xbox360, too?

Sounds like you got a pretty sweet deal. With the compay helping you with your tuition.

But some of us here (no we're not all 19 and pretty) are old have a house and motage to pay on top of car payments, insurance, and savings in case of emergency ect... Plus the $4500 sectional sofa I want to buy for our house. So I have to think practically all the time. If not my wife usually reminds me.

Well, I hope at my current rate that money will be no object when I'm old. I nab my BA in a year and going for a promotion in March. I sure as hell can't make mortgage payments or rent payments with my paycheck, so I understand where you're coming from.

 

[RussianSensation]

With all due respect to the discussion, everything has to be taken in perspective.

2x6600GTs simply made 0 sense when 6800GT cost less or the same and outperformed them. Yet, today, 2x7800GTs net a far better deal than X1800XT for $500+. They do cost a bit more, but vastly outperform it. On the other hand, 2x7800GTX cost a lot more than 2x7800GTs, while netting far lower price/performance benefit.

What if next generation does not increase performance 2x? If performance jumps less than 2x, then having 2x7800GTs for $600 together might be better than $599 R600/G80 card. What if performance exceeds 2x? The reverse is true. Sometimes it is very difficult to judge best bang for the buck. But I think we can all agree that those who spend this much money on videocards do not necessarily consider spending money on videocards as bulletproofing or investing when they go SLI. That is why such a solution appeals to those who have a bit more $ to spare. That doesn't mean it is a cost effective one though. It's even harder to predict since we cannot often estimate the exact speed of next generation.

 

[Ronin]

If you ever use SLi as a means of keeping up with technology, you'll be sorely disappointed. nVIDIA comes out with a fair upgrade every 6-9 months, and it's likely that cycle won't change. Buy what you're comfortable buying, but never, ever, justify it as an upgrade path, or future-proofing.

 

[Greenman]

But some of us here (no we're not all 19 and pretty) are old have a house and motage to pay on top of car payments, insurance, and savings in case of emergency ect... Plus the $4500 sectional sofa I want to buy for our house. So I have to think practically all the time. If not my wife usually reminds me.

Ain't that the truth. Car payments, new landscaping, new kitchen, new roof, new fences, new floors, new windows, new doors and trim. My house is looking good, but I'm poor as dirt.

 

[Genx87]

Because they are jealous somebody else can afford 1400 dollars worth of video card to wtfpwn them in the newest games.

 

[jnjboc]

I'm glad I continued to read this thread before ordering a 2nd EVGA 7800 GTX card for SLI..........STEP UP PROGRAM???

I checked it out at EVGA. wow that's cool....I already signed up for an upgrade to the 7800GTX 512mb. I only pay to pay the difference between retail of the new card and what I paid for the 256mb card. I am #297 on the list....will probably be 3 or 4 months.

Then I can get a second 512 GTX at the egg. and run SLI on the two 512mb cards as I will able to stagger the costs of gettting them over several months while enjoying my single 256 GTX now!! wow, I like that plan..

thanks folks.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Well, two geforce 2 ultras would have dominated a geforce 3 ti 500, so there's really only been two periods of time where major performance increases were delayed long enough to make sli a worthwhile upgrade path.

Two GeForceDDRs would have throttled a single GF2 GTS. Two GF3 Ti500s would have smoked a GF4 Ti4600 or R8500. Actually, the next gen making gains large enough to outdo a prior gen 'SLI' setup- if they existed- would be the exception not the norm.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker

Well, two geforce 2 ultras would have dominated a geforce 3 ti 500, so there's really only been two periods of time where major performance increases were delayed long enough to make sli a worthwhile upgrade path.

Two GeForceDDRs would have throttled a single GF2 GTS. Two GF3 Ti500s would have smoked a GF4 Ti4600 or R8500. Actually, the next gen making gains large enough to outdo a prior gen 'SLI' setup- if they existed- would be the exception not the norm.

QFT

Two 6800GTs are as fast, or faster, than one 7800GT. Two 6800 Ultras are as faster, or faster than a 7800GTX. (for the most part)